the steinfeld

It is my third birthday party and all of my friends and family are with me in our backyard. My relatives, specifically the older ones, are swarming around me, extending happy birthday wishes to me and pinching my cheeks. My friends are running around, having a good time and eating the cake that has just been brought out. Suddenly, from the front yard of my house appears Simba the lion, of the Disney movie, Lion King. I now know that this Simba was simply two clowns dressed in a costume. Simba came into the backyard and just as he moved into the center of the party my father picked me up and put me on Simba’s back

One of the reasons why I have a memory of an event that took place at such an early age, and one which is so vivid in detail, might be due to the fact that my parents have told me about it repeatedly. This may have caused me to create a false memory and to think of it as my own. This process, by which outside information is acquired and affects or even creates a memory, is called interference, as is mentioned in the article, Eyewitness Testimony, and Assassination Research. In this article it is shown that interference was the main reason for the more than 400 different eyewitness testimonies of the shooting of JFK.

Another reason why the aforementioned birthday party is my earliest memory might be because it was such a happy memory that I valued it tremendously and therefore revisited/remembered it often. As Susan Engle writes, “memories that one used often tend to be recalled better than those to which one rarely refers (Engel 5). Since Simba was my favorite Disney character, I constantly revisited that memory and by doing so, I made that memory so strong that, even now, sixteen years later, it remains with me, as opposed to other events which happened in that same time frame and of which I have no recollection.

Additionally, this memory might remain with me, due to the fact that it is an episodic memory, as mentioned in Daniel Schachter’s writing Searching for Memory an episodic memory “allows us explicitly to recall the personal incidents that uniquely define our lives” (Schachter 17). At the time of the event I was being treated with love and respect by everyone present and as I was seated atop Simba I felt superior to everyone who was there. Adults and children alike approached me and all were expected to say “happy birthday” and to hand presents to me. In my mind I was the envy of all of my friends. I knew that they were amazed to see me sitting on the lion and it made me feel as if I was the most important person in the world.

The memory of this birthday party could well be the defining moment of my life because it fits in with my egocentric personality. And I felt then, as I do now, that I was entitled to all of that attention. It is possible that I subconsciously look for and wish to receive that same level of love, respect and admiration in my life today.

Bibliography

1) Dennis Ford and Mark Zaid, Eyewitness Testimony, and Assasination Research

, website, 1993, http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/zaid.htm

2) Susan Engel, Where Memory Begins, Book,1996

3) Daniel schachter, Searching for memory, Book

Funes memory is a good read but its not possible according to scientific veiws on memory that we have today.

In Krapp’s last tape the author shows memoryvery well as the tape and as the reaction of krapp which is a very good portrayol of memory.

In the poem written by Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” it effectively shows how one can control his own memorie.

Memory metaphors: computer, birdcage, block of wax, magic lantern, belly of the mind, filing cabinet.

A salad bowl can be a metaphor for memory. In a salad bowl there are different pieces with different shapes and sizes which makes some more noticeable than others. Also the earlier memories are on the bottom of the bowl but a bigger and more noticeable piece on the bottom can stick out and be more noticeable than more recent memories. Another way the salad bowl can be a metaphor for memory is that some pieces can look similar enough to be mistaken for one another.

When I read “I wandered lonely as a cloud” by William Wordsworth I saw it as a man just looking at something that he enjoyed and that helped him relax. I saw it as a man just enjoying nature and realizing its details. My Partner had a different view on this poem. She focused on the beginning where it mentioned him being lonely and how he feels. She viewed this poem as showing how lonely he feels and how he doesn’t feel to really belong anywhere. The reason I think that my partner and I came to different versions of the same poem was that she focused on the beginning of the poem while I had focused on the end.

1)Explicit Memory: The ability of memory to be able to recall words or recognize materials they were shown in the past.

2) Implicit Memory: When past experiences unconsciously affect our perceptions, thoughts and actions.

3)Screen memory: A memory that is covered-up for a more dangerous, id-governed memory.

4)Template memory: A memory that stands for a larger, more diffuse meaning of theme in a persons life, can be discovered unwittingly, or used deliberately.

5)Self Presentation: A given face

It is clear that understanding what Memory is and what it does for us is not a simple thing. But  it is clear that it helps make up the idendity of a person and without it you may feeel lost and/or crippled. These voacbulary show how memory helps your Idendity and who you are today. The different types of memory show how and why different memories are formed or remembered.

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